Viewpoint: Don’t ‘Rush’ to Judgment

It has been the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s summer of discontent, with
injuries and withdrawals marring a number of promising cards over
the past few months. Everything culminated into one giant black
cloud of despair on Aug. 23, when a series of events beginning with
a Dan
Henderson knee injury led to the cancellation of UFC 151.

As a result, it has been a tense week-and-a-half in the MMA world.
Fighters were on edge. UFC brass was angry. Fans were just plain
frustrated. Over the course of the past 15 months, it is quite
possible that welterweight champion Georges St.
Pierre has been through a similar gamut of emotions.

Since he last defended his title against Jake Shields
in front of a record crowd at the Rogers Centre in Toronto at UFC
129, St. Pierre has been called out, doubted and, as tends to
happen to fighters who are shelved for a significant period of
time, overlooked. The one thing St. Pierre has not been able to do
is fight, which is why the news of his official clearance last week
came at just the right time for a reeling organization.

“Yesterday was the final chapter of my Road to Recovery,” St.
Pierre wrote Tuesday on Facebook. “I’m now medically cleared to
compete in professional mixed martial arts! Big thanks to all my
fans for the amazing support during those nine long months of rehab
-- couldn’t have done it without you. … Rendez-vous le 17 Novembre,
UFC 154, Montreal!”

Yes, a bout between St. Pierre and interim 170-pound titlist
Carlos
Condit has been targeted for a couple months, but these are
uncertain times in the sport, so any good news is welcome. When
fighters train for fights by fighting, health is never guaranteed.
Things are even dicier when it comes to athletes and their
knees.

St. Pierre underwent surgery for a torn anterior-cruciate ligament
in December. In stick-and-ball sports, the traditional line of
thought says that an athlete needs at least a full year back before
he can begin to think about returning to peak form. The Chicago
Bulls’ Derrick Rose tore his ACL during a playoff game in April.
Prognostications vary as to the exact date Rose will get back on
the hardwood, but is likely that he will be playing at some point
during the 2012-13 NBA season. Almost no one with realistic
expectations believes Rose will immediately resemble the
lightning-quick point guard who captured an MVP award at just 22
years old. And that is OK. The Bulls can reload and look toward the
following season, hoping their star makes a full recovery by
then.

Carlos
Condit File Photo

Condit will get his shot at GSP.

St. Pierre has no such luxury. If his knee does not allow him to
duplicate the explosive shot that made him one of MMA’s best
wrestlers -- despite not having a wrestling background -- prior to
the injury, he will not get a mulligan. Against a mobile striker
such as Condit, who has been rapidly improving with each fight, GSP
will need to be as close to 100 percent as possible. History is not
on his side. At 31 years old, time is not his ally, either. As
UFC
154 approaches, expect more and more questions to arise as to
whether St. Pierre is rushing his return.

While his impressive UFC resume dictates he should remain very much
alive in the title picture even after a loss, there is a bumper
crop of new contenders at welterweight that would beg to differ.
The division appears to be far deeper than it was the last time St.
Pierre graced the Octagon. Part of the new breed, Rory
MacDonald, resides in St. Pierre’s camp. When St. Pierre first
won the welterweight title, MacDonald was 17 years old.

Even with all that in mind, it would be a fool’s errand to bet
against the champion. After he lost to the lightly regarded
Matt
Serra in one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, St. Pierre
vowed that he would never overlook an opponent again. Critics have
become increasingly disenchanted with his methods of victory --
four straight decisions -- but St. Pierre has not lost since.

A consummate professional, St. Pierre wore suits to press
conferences when others donned gaudy T-shirts. Not surprisingly, he
received blue-chip endorsement deals with the likes of Gatorade and
Under Armour. With his warm personality, St. Pierre has long been
an admirable ambassador for the sport. His presence on fight cards,
despite accusations of a boring style, help drive pay-per-view
buys. What does all that have to do with the rehabilitation of a
knee? Nothing -- and everything.

If the injury gods are cruel, no amount of preparation and
dedication will allow for a vintage GSP. Sometimes that is just the
way it works. However, St. Pierre’s attention to detail is
obviously impeccable. If anyone can beat an injury timetable, it is
this man. I am not saying St. Pierre will definitely make a
triumphant return, but I am saying he will do everything he can to
ensure the odds are in his favor.

You should be pulling for St. Pierre. If all goes well in his
comeback, we can return to daydreaming about an Anderson
Silva-St. Pierre mega-match in an oversized football stadium.
That is never a bad thing. Or maybe “Rush” tells Johny
Hendricks and Co. that he is not impressed with their
performance as he decides to launch a campaign against the new
blood at welterweight. Or perhaps St. Pierre never returns to
dominance. That does not mean his demise is imminent; a GSP at 85
or 90 percent of his former self still takes out the majority of
the division.

All of the above are desirable scenarios, if only because St.
Pierre makes for a better, stronger, more interesting UFC. At the
very least, he allows us relief from our UFC 151 angst, if only for
a moment.